PUBLIC SPEAKING:THE SIN OF MONOTONY, DOES IT EXIST?

PUBLIC SPEAKING:THE SIN OF MONOTONY, DOES IT EXIST?

Our English has changed with the years so that many words now connote more than they did originally. This is true of the word monotonous. From “having but one tone,” it has come to mean more broadly, “lack of variation.” The monotonous speaker not only drones along in the same volume and pitch of tone but uses always the same emphasis, the same speed, the same thoughts, or dispenses with thought altogether.

Monotony, the cardinal and most common sin of the public speaker, is not a transgression, it is rather a sin of omission. To tell you that your speech is monotonous may mean very little to you, so let us look at the nature, and the curse, of monotony in other spheres of life, then we shall appreciate more fully how it will blight an otherwise good speech.

If the record player in the adjoining apartment grinds out just three selections over and over again, it is pretty safe to assume that your neighbor has no other records. If a speaker uses only a few of his powers, it points very plainly to the fact that the rest of his powers are not developed. Monotony reveals our limitations.

In its effect on its victim, monotony is actually deadly, it will drive the bloom from the cheek and the lustre from the eye as quickly as sin, and often leads to viciousness. The worst punishment that human ingenuity has ever been able to invent is extreme monotony, solitary confinement. Lay a marble on the table and do nothing eighteen hours of the day but change that marble from one point to another and back again, and you will go insane if you continue long enough.

So this thing that shortens life, and is used as the cruelest of punishments in our prisons, is the thing that will destroy all the life and force of a speech. Avoid market. Monotony is poverty, whether in speech or in life. Strive to increase the variety of your speech as the business man labours to augment his wealth. Bird-songs, forest glens, and mountains are not monotonous, it is the long rows of brown-stone fronts and the miles of paved streets that are so terribly same. Nature in her wealth gives us endless variety; man with his limitations is often monotonous.

Get back to Nature in your methods of speech-making. The power of variety lies in its pleasure-giving quality. The great truths of the world have often been couched in fascinating stories, “Less Miserables,” for instance. If you wish to teach or influence men, you must please them, first or last. Strike the same note on the piano over and over again. This will give you some idea of the displeasing, jarring  effect monotony has on the ear. The dictionary defines “monotonous” as being synonymous with “wearisome.” That is putting it mildly. It is maddening.

How to Conquer Monotony:
We obviate monotony in dress by replenishing our wardrobes. We avoid monotony in speech by multiplying our powers of speech. We multiply our powers of speech by increasing our tools.
The carpenter has special implements with which to construct the several parts of a building. The organist has certain keys and stops which he manipulates to produce his harmonies and effects. In like manner the speaker has certain instruments and tools at his command by which he builds his argument, plays on the feelings, and guides the beliefs of his audience. To give you a conception of these instruments, and practical help in learning to use them, is the purpose of the immediately following chapters. Many speakers still use ox-cart methods in their speech instead of employing automobile or overland-express methods. They are ignorant of laws that make for efficiency in speaking.

Just to the extent that you regard and use the laws that we are about to examine and learn how to use will you have efficiency and force in your speaking; and just to the extent that you disregard them will your speaking be feeble and ineffective. We cannot impress too thoroughly upon you the necessity for a real working mastery of these principles. They are the very foundations of successful speaking. “Get your principles right,” said Napoleon, “and the rest is a matter of detail.” It is useless to shoe a dead horse, and all the sound principles in the world will never make a live speech out of a dead one. So let it be understood that public speaking is not a matter of mastering a few dead rules; the most important law of public speech is the necessity for truth, force, feeling, and life. Forget all else, but not this. When you have mastered the mechanics of speech, you will no longer be troubled with monotony. The complete knowledge of these principles and the ability to apply them will give you great variety in your powers of expression. But they cannot be mastered and applied by thinking or reading about them, you must practise, practise, PRACTISE. If no one else will listen to you, listen to yourself, you must always be your own best critic, and the severest one of all.